One Team, One Stat -- Sacramento Kings struggle through 11 bad seasons on both ends of the floor

It's been a long time since the Kings were solid on offense and defense.

NBA.com's John Schuhmann gets you ready for the 2017-18 season with a key stat for each team in the league and shows you why it matters. Today, we look at the Sacramento Kings, who have had more than a decade of futility ... on both ends of the floor.

THE STAT

The Sacramento Kings have had both a below-average offense and a below-average defense for 11 straight seasons.

THE CONTEXT

No other team has been below-average on either end of the floor in each of the last 11 seasons or on both ends of the floor in more than eight of the last 11. The Kings' streak of being doubly below average stands alone, and it coincides with an 11-year playoff drought, the fourth longest in NBA history.

The Kings have been close to mediocre offensively a few times, but the best they've been on defense over the last 11 years is 1.5 points per 100 possessions worse than the league average. In the 32 seasons they've been in Sacramento, they've allowed fewer points per 100 possessions than the league average just six times.

The last 11 seasons have yielded a mostly forgettable set of Lottery picks, the first eight of which averaged less than four seasons with the team. The good thing about first-round picks is supposed to be that you have control of them for at least their first five seasons in the league, but chosen to relinquish that control over the guys they have drafted themselves. Success and failure in this league starts at the top.

DeMarcus Cousins was the only one of those picks that rose to the level of All-Star, and he couldn't lift the team around him. Among active players, only one player has played more regular season games than Cousins (487) without making the playoffs. That player - Omri Casspi - was a Kings first round pick who they traded after two seasons (and then got back three years later).

Kings coaches have had even shorter tenures than their first round picks. There have been eight of them over the last 11 seasons, as the Kings have tried hit the reset button time after time. By trading Cousins in February, the Kings managed to reset without firing their coach.

It's time for another new start. The Kings' seven returning players accounted for only 32 percent of the team's minutes last season, putting the team last in season-to-season continuity as camps opened. They've even said goodbye to seven of the 13 guys who played for them after the Cousins trade last season.

Maybe a lack of continuity is a good thing. The new roster includes some young guys with promise and a few veterans with experience. But it's not clear that the Kings are any closer to being average on one side of the floor or the other.

KINGS NOTES - OFFENSE

77.6 percent of their 3-point attempts were catch-and-shoot attempts, the third highest rate in the league.

According to SportVU, only 39 percent of their ball screens resulted in a shot, drawn foul or turnover from the ball-handler or the screener. That was the second lowest ball-screen usage rate in the league, higher than only that of Miami.

Took 19 percent of their shots, the fourth highest rate in the league, in the last six seconds of the shot clock. Only Utah, Dallas and Memphis shot more often late in the clock.

Ranked sixth in the league with 3.24 passes per possession, up from 2.77 (29th) the season before. That was the biggest increase (by a wide margin) from 2015-16 to '16-17. The Kings ranked third in the league with 8.7 pass-ahead passes (where the ball is passed from the backcourt to the frontcourt, traveling at least 18 feet toward the basket) per game and second with 9.2 skip passes per game.

NBA.com writer, John Schuhmann, breaks down statistics ahead of the start of the 2017-2018 NBA season.

KINGS NOTES - DEFENSE

Have been a bottom-10 defense each of the last six seasons, longest current streak in the league.

Allowed their opponents to take only 28.7 percent of their shots, the third lowest rate in the league, from the restricted area, though that was an increase from 28.5 percent (the league's lowest rate) the season before.

36.1 percent of their opponents' shots, the second highest opponent rate in the league (and in NBA history), were 3-pointers. Only Charlotte (36.3 percent) allowed their opponents to take a greater percentage of their shots (or score more points) from beyond the arc.

According to SportVU, they allowed only 23.5 drives per game, fewest in the league.

KINGS NOTES - LINEUPS

No lineup that played last season includes five of the seven guys who are still on the roster.

One of four teams - New Orleans, Philadelphia and Utah were the others - that didn't have a lineup that played at least 200 minutes together last season. Their most-used lineup after the All-Star break (and the Cousins trade) - Darren Collison, Hield, Tyreke Evans, Labissiere and Cauley-Stein - played just 58 minutes together. Every other team had a lineup that played at least 94 minutes together after the break.

KINGS NOTES - INDIVIDUAL

Vince Carter attempted 5.4 times as many 3-pointers (296) as mid-range shots (55) last season. That was about double the highest ratio of his career prior to that (2.7 in 2014-15). His assist rate (18.4 per 100 possessions used) was the second highest mark of his career and his turnover rate (6.9 per 100 possessions) was his lowest.

Willie Cauley-Stein had a usage rate of 19.9 percent, up from 13.3 percent in his rookie season. That was the fifth biggest increase among players who played at least 500 minutes in 2015-16 and 1,000 minutes in '16-17. New teammate George Hill (from 16.0 percent to 23.6 percent) was one of the four players who saw a bigger increase.

Hield attempted just 9.9 free throws for every 100 shots from the field, the fifth lowest rate among 174 players who attempted at least 500 field goals last season. He didn't rank quite as low (119th) in the percentage of his shots (23.1 percent) that came from the restricted area.

Last season's Jazz were at their best offensively, scoring 109.7 points per 100 possessions, when Hill was on the floor. Even with his big increase in usage rate, he recorded career highs in both effective field goal percentage (55.4 percent) and true shooting percentage (59.9 percent).